11.01.2005

The Fine Art of Doodling

There's a great freedom to doodling. I love the non-commitment in the act -- I don't have to think about all the stuffy issues with composition, color, layout, design, physics -- you name it. Doodling can be a liberating experience for the artist. Whether it be while you're on the phone, in a meeting, or just sitting around, it is so fun to just draw without a care in the world. No strict deadlines, no possible client rejections, no hurried breathing of producers down your neck... just you, your pen/pencil, and your little piece of paper. No guidelines, no fear, no worries.

Just you and your imagination.

Here are few doodles and sketches that I've managed to scan. Some fun, some odd, but all of it off the top of my head.

Fun little sketch of the family.

Dancing people are fun to draw.

Flying girls and some old dude.

I think the guy with the hat is Barry McGee (aka TWIST) from some magazine I was looking at.

Drawn during an ASIFA meeting. I do this thing during meetings or conference calls where I start to doodle faces. Many faces, all stacked on top of each other, all packed together. It becomes some sort of game for me to see just how many different faces I can come up with. Also it's an exercise for me to try and break out from any potential artistic rut that I sometimes see myself get into. This exercise is very addictive.

This was during a conference call. This one guy began talking so my mind began to wonder off.

I was playing around with the india ink pen in the middle here. I then sketched Ava when she was walking to the car. Being the constant dawdler, she had grabbed a piece of chalk and began drawing x's on all the stones that make up our footpath from the house to the car. Silly girl.

Kinda sorta me, kinda sorta not. This doodle was found at the bottom corner of the page after that previously mentioned conference call.

The dancing people are sick, I love it! I'd really love to see your style as a series or even feature length. You should also bring back the short you did and post a step by step on this thing. It would be cool if we could animate our own styles and stories to share them with the world. but family,paying gigs and Time seem to hold us back. I hope one day we could work togeter bang out our visions for the world to enjoy. We deserve it. I changed the look of my blog, check it out...http://sacks10.blogspot.com/I'm gonna keep up with it regularly now.

you know, I love to find these doodles of yours in unexpected places (somtimes you leave them around)... really love these that you've posted here, too. but my favorite is the one of the four of us... something about that one.

Ward; these are terrific - and the ones of Ava - esp. the one where she's drawing w/ chalk - are transcendant! I'm reminded of R Crumb's insatiable compulsion to sketch... such an admirable quality that I wish I had :-( Sketches and doodles are so imbued w/ the energy of life - such a hard thing to retain in a finished piece. Keep doodlin' and keep postin' them for us!

I'm overwhelmed by the response, guys! Thanks a bunch for the nice comments on my humble doodles. Sax, it's good to see you back in the blog world, buddy. Can't wait to see what you got stored up in your head. You too, Andre!

Klahd, my lawyers will be contacting you....

Andrea, I love that one of us, too. That and the dancers.

Looks like Ava drawing on the stones is a crowd favorite. Funny how that is.

And Leif, R Crumb has this amazing ability to capture the moment through memory alone. I'm told he has a photographic memory. I wouldn't doubt it.

Doodlers: I loved Hootchy Kootchy Haiku at Ottawa! Thanks for stopping by. Great work you two do!

You know, I was a little wary of showcasing my sketches here because there's more of an intimate nature to them. It's more of me trying things out and is just meant for my eyes only. So, it's nice to see others enjoying my personal stuff here. Thanks, guys. (And you can thank Jared for encouraging me to scan these drawings and post them up for you all to see.)

Okay, I just left a comment, but I want to say more now that the production meeting is over. I'm loving it up here! So far, working at Curious Pictures has been a nice transition from Primal Screen. I'm helping Dustin with a Barbie movie, which was animated in 3-D and is VERY pink! I love my new apt even though the bedroom is tiny. You'll have to see it sometime if you and Andrea happen to come up. Tell everyone hello at Primal! Gotta' run!